SALEM — Barbara Lundquist remembers when her husband was first elected to the state House of Representatives and the two of them walked through the Capitol’s front doors.

“Oh my gosh, we get to work here,” she recalls thinking.

The two worked side-by-side as her husband became speaker of the House after only one term.

Lynn Lundquist died in April of an aneurysm while sitting at his kitchen table in Powell Butte. He was 78.

Wednesday, House members unanimously passed a memorial remembering the man for his many achievements and took a moment to remember someone they called “tireless” and a “true Oregonian.”

Barbara Lundquist sat on the side aisle of the House chamber, along with her children, friends and grandchildren.

The only House member who was around when Lundquist was speaker was Rep. Bob Jenson, R-Pendleton. At the time, Jenson was a freshman lawmaker and a Democrat.

Lundquist, he said, was a speaker who worked well across the aisle.

“He personified the idea of speaker of the House, not speaker of the Republican Party,” Jenson said.

And it was apparent by those who were in attendance. Former Speaker of the House Dave Hunt, a Democrat, came for the ceremony to honor Lundquist. And Secretary of State Kate Brown, D-Portland, made a beeline for Barbara Lundquist, giving her a hug.

“If you look up the word civility, there is a picture of Lynn Lundquist,” Brown said after the ceremony. “He was warm, civil, generous … really, an amazing soul.”

Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, said Lundquist “treated everyone as if you were his long-lost friend.”

He had a passion, Buckley said, for education, for students and for the state of Oregon.

“How could you not like that guy?” Buckley said.

Lundquist served as speaker in 1997 and 1998 and lost the role to a fellow Republican, Lynn Snodgrass, in 1999. He remained in the House and challenged Snodgrass later for the position of secretary of state in 2000. Snodgrass defeated him in the Republican primary.

Back home, Lundquist served on the Crook County Court and a slew of nonprofit boards and was instrumental in the creation of the Powell Butte Charter School.

People lined up at a reception to speak to Barbara Lundquist.

“I love these people, I really do,” she said. “The ones that hug me, it’s because they care. It’s not phony.”

Of the day, Barbara Lundquist said, her husband would have been proud.

“He always wanted to be remembered as a man that gave more than he took,” his wife of 42 years said. “And he was. I’m putting that on his headstone.”